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After seven central Ohio school boards welcomed new superintendents this year, another group of
districts is in the midst of their searches.

Pickerington school-board members will begin interviews next week to find a successor to
retiring Superintendent Rob Walker.

Grandview Heights officials will review applications later this month for a new district leader
to assume Superintendent Ed O’Reilly’s job. O’Reilly is leaving the district in July.

The Reynoldsburg school board hired its next superintendent three months after Steve Dackin
announced that he plans to retire at the end of the school year.

This year, 150 Ohio districts welcomed new superintendents, a 25 percent increase from previous
years. Thirty-five

superintendent openings have been announced for the 2014-15 school year; more will be
coming.

According to the Buckeye Association of School Administrators, an uptick is expected to continue
over the next two years as more baby boomers reach retirement age and changes to the state
retirement system continue to be phased in.

Dennis Leone, a former superintendent of Chillicothe schools whose K-12 Business Consulting
group is helping the Pickerington board with its superintendent search, reached out to potential
candidates, only to learn that they could not remain in the job long enough.

“There have been a couple who have said they should not apply because (they’ll) be retiring
soon,” he said.

After 14 candidates initially applied for the Pickerington opening, five more were recruited to
join the list on Thursday. They include O’Reilly and Gahanna-Jefferson Superintendent Francis
Scruci, who was hired two years ago.

The Reynoldsburg school board went a different route. Instead of posting the position, it sought
Tina Thomas-Manning, an associate superintendent in the Ohio Department of Education who previously
had served as a principal and director of education at middle and junior high schools in
Reynoldsburg.

Board President Andy Swope said Thomas-

Manning was considered Dackin’s successor before she took the state job.

“Reynoldsburg is a different type of district,” Swope said. “We don’t have a lot of different
layers at the administration’s office. If you had to do a search with candidates who didn’t know
Reynoldsburg intimately, it would have been a shock because they don’t realize how much work it is
and how the superintendent has to wear so many hats.”